Hi going on my first cruise on Royal Caribbean. I realize they place a tip at the end of each day on your account. But does the staff expect you to leave additional tips at dinner time? Or for the person who cleans your cabin? Would hate to get crappy service cause i didnt leave additional tips

Hi Lady in Red
The moderators are probably going to move your post to the Royal Caribbean or general cruise chat thread....
but welcome. There's no need to tip daily and no need to tip above and beyond, with the exception of room service.
If there's someone who you find to be extraordinary, you can certainly tip extra, and don't be afraid to tell them what a big difference they made to your overall experience.
I prefer to pre pay my tips, so my cruise account doesn't add up so quickly... but that's up to you.
Have a great cruise. You will be back.
Marsha

Actually, RCI does not do that. There are three ways to pay for tips on RCI. You can prepay them in full when you make the booking, you can have them added to you onboard account during the cruise, or you can use the traditional cash in envelopes on the last day of the cruise. In the second case they make one charge for all the tips and provide you with vouchers to put in the envelopes. It is really just a way to pay them without using a bunch of cash.

There is no need to hand out tips every day. The expectation of the crew is they will get rewarded on the last night of the cruise. I've never felt our service suffered because we didn't tip extra during the cruise. Some cruisers do believe in the greasing of palms for the cabin attendant and dining room staff on the first day. I don't.

There are exceptions.

Room service personnel should be tipped each time they bring an order. $2-5 depending on the size of the order. RCI charges a $3.95 room service fee for orders placed between midnight and 5am, and they say it includes the gratuity. I'd still add a bit to the ticket.

Although bar orders have 15% added to each order, I like to hand out cash to the staff at my favorite bars on the first day, and perhaps once or twice more on a 7 night cruise. In this case I do think it helps me get served quicker.

If you are on a ship with Chops or Portofino, the cover charge includes gratuities. Some still like to add a little more to the tab.

If your ship has a Johnny Rockets, the $4.95 cover charge includes tips. Again, if you feel like it you can add more.

However, it is my view that for your cabin and dining room staff it is fine to simply wait until the last night.

On our recent trip on the Explorer, we ate at Portofino and the food and service were just superb. We ordered a bottle of wine with dinner, and when the check came for the wine, I added a very generous tip for the waitstaff as well. We were there for almost 2 1/2 hours and were never rushed. That dinner was certainly one of the highlights of our cruise and I really appreciated the outstanding quality and attention which we received. There's no way that I would have left the restaurant without additional tipping. They certainly deserved it.